Dugway to get 4 new germ labs

Military officials have quietly authorized construction of four temporary germ laboratories at Dugway Proving Ground that would cultivate and test biological warfare agents, citing an immediate need "to deal with an apparent gap between readiness to defend against (biological warfare) attacks and the probable threat."

The authorization was revealed in an abridged environmental assessment finding of no significant impact, or FONSI, published in mid-December in the Federal Register and in the small print of newspaper back pages.

But the finding came before final approval of a required environmental impact statement whose 2002 draft, still under Pentagon review, called for just one permanent annex to the Dugway germ warfare complex, not four temporary labs.

Steve Erickson, director of the watchdog Citizen Education Project, said he stumbled across the FONSI notice from Dugway commander Col. Gary Harter in the small-print legal notice section of a Salt Lake newspaper's Dec. 13 edition.

Erickson, a longtime citizen advocate who keeps close watch on federal programs, said the seeming stealth and backward process makes people suspicious about Defense Department plans to expand bioweapons defense testing and training at Dugway.

"The real concern is what are we doing here? All of a sudden, we're building new labs without the public being informed," Erickson said. "Obviously, they're in a big rush. Why?"

Sen. Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake, also wants to know. He is sponsoring a bill that would revive the Utah Federal Research Committee, in whose earlier incarnation former Sen. Frances Farley in 1979 first heard about the infamous MX mobile nuclear missile program planned to crisscross the desert in tunnels between Salt Lake City and Reno.

While the National Environmental Policy Act administered by the Energy Department requires reviews that include public notice and comment on Dugway expansion, Davis wants a committee specifically dedicated to watching out for the state's interests.

Three of the custom-built Dugway modular labs would be for biosafety level 3 agents. The other lab would be for biosafety level 2 testing.

The federal Centers for Disease Control's list of level 3 pathogens includes yellow fever and the mosquito-borne West Nile virus and Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis. Level 4 agents — the most dangerous, which are not allowed in level 3 labs — are pathogens that have neither vaccines nor cures, such as Ebola and Lassa hemorrhagic fevers.